Joost TV

Joost, the online television service launched with a fanfare last year by the founders of internet telephony firm Skype, is preparing for a major retrenchment after failing to attract enough users and top-flight broadcasting rights.

The company is expected to rein in its global ambitions to focus solely on the US market.

Joost has been overshadowed by the success of the BBC's iPlayer, and in America, Hulu, a collaboration between NBC and News Corporation.

It has struggled to convince media and sports companies to sell it global rights, which are normally parcelled out to broadcasters country by country.

The BBC iPlayer, which provides a free seven-day window for viewers to watch shows they missed the first time round, is recording up to 500,000 programme downloads a day.

In the summer, it will be joined by Kangaroo, a portal shared by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, to show older content, which will be funded by advertising.

Online video platform Joost will cease to be a consumer-facing website as part of a strategy rethink that will also see Mike Volpi stand down as chief executive.

It will now focus on selling white label web video platforms to third parties such as broadcasters, cable and satellite providers and video aggregators. Joost will restructure the business and scale back its international operations.

In these tough economic times, it's been increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform, Volpi said.

Volpi did not confirm the number of job losses resulting from the new strategy, which effectively ends Joost's position as a competitor to the likes of YouTube and US broadcasters' video-on-demand platform Hulu.

Update: Liquidated

17th October 2009. See article from theregister.co.uk

Joost, the web telly firm founded by the blokes behind Skype, has liquidated its UK subsidiary.

As reported by The FT and TechCrunch Europe, Joost UK was put into liquidation earlier this month, yet another step in the slow decline of the Netherlands-based outfit.

Joost retains operations in the Netherlands and New York, but on October 2, the company called for an end to its UK arm. Liquidators tell The FT that Joost retains a skeleton staff. But TechCrunch says the company's furniture is already in the hands of another startup